Shop Made Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I made a few end-grain cutting boards for gifts. One went to my brother and sister-in-law, and the other went to Ruths parents. Here are a few pictures of the process, and a video at the end.

I obviously waited to post these pictures until after christmas, because my brother looks at this every day...Hi Eric!

Here is the raw stock right from the supplier...beautiful purpleheart and hard maple. 8/4 thickness is so fun to work with.

Here is the lumber all planed down to final thickness.

Our fist set of cuts, and the pieces layed out in the first pattern.

The first glue-up. Let to dry overnight.

After the glue dried, we crosscut the pieces into what we have here, after rotating them we have our final pattern, glued and turned end-grain up. Back in the clamps it goes.

This is what it looked like before we put the glue on in the picture above.

Here it is all dried up and ready to head to the high school to send it thru the huge belt sander...as I cannot afford one yet. That made it perfectly smooth on both sides.

After the edges were routed with a 45 degree chamfer bit, and the finger holds were cut using a rabbeting router bit, it got about 5 generous coats of mineral oil. Basically we kept wiping on oil until it would no longer soak in.

Here is the final product...I was very pleased by the results, as these were the first ones I have made.

This is a video of me face jointing a slab of purpleheart to get it ready for the planer.



I also made a bar/liquor shelf for my brother and sister-in-law, but I forgot to take pictures. Once they have it hanging up, I will post some pictures.

I am Still Alive

Hello, for those of you that are wondering...I am still alive. I have been working a little bit in the shop, but not much is going on right now. Catching up on the paperwork stuff, and working on some pricing of other projects. Stay tuned for more, I hope to have more shop time next week, after this weekend in Marshfield for Christmas on Ruth's side of the family.

Da Packers in Da Shop

Today was a full day in the shop...actually we were working for about 12 hours today. We finished a total of five projects that will be delivered tomorrow, four shadow boxes, and one diamond case. We watched the packer game for a few hours while we were working....no need to mention how the game ended.

What shop does not have cable T.V.??

What is football without some food?? Here is a view of the shop kitchen.

Ruth in her "retro" Spencer Rockets track jacket, wiping the excess stain off of a shadow box.

This is a diamond case. We are trying out a special adhesive that is cured by U.V. light. This is a highly advanced light placement device used to cure the case, at least we say so. This way when we headed out this evening we have light focused on the case all night, to ensure a good and tight bond.

This is a new variation to our normal shadow box. Once the box is all glued up, we set it on the table saw, and cut part of it off to make it two pieces. These two pieces are then stained, then hinges, corner braces, and a latch are added to make it a box you can open up and add, or remove items. I like how it turned out.

End of Hunting...back in the shop.

Well deer hunting wrapped up on Sunday, and our group ended up with a total of seven deer out of 10 people. My brother did end up getting a pretty nice 7 point buck. As always we all had a great time, and most importantly, we all stayed safe.

Now that hunting is over, that means I finally have gotten back in the shop. I actually missed being in the shop quite a bit.

Here is the perfect sunrise on Thanksgiving morning...I love being out there as the sun comes up...its so quiet. It is even nicer the day after Thanksgiving knowing you are enjoying the complete silence as all of the psychos are out trampling over each other at Wal*mart. There is no way possible to make me give up that solitude to go shopping.

Here is Eric's buck...nicely done! This one was a team effort, as this deer absolutely fought until the bitter end. With one bad back leg, one bad front leg, you would be amazed at the will power these creatures have..this thing just kept running, and we have no idea how! It required a few people in the marsh tracking the blood to finally catch up to this thing...well worth the effort.

Here is one of two sets of bi-fold closet doors my buddy dropped off tonight. We will be sanding and finishing these doors for him.

Here was the rest of what we did tonight. We have two wood boxes glued up, and another glass diamond case drying as well.